It was a summer’s afternoon in New York, and Karen Pierce, then Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, was hosting a party to mark the Queen’s official birthday. In the garden of the UN headquarters in Manhattan’s Midtown East, a trestle table heaved under 500 cupcakes arranged in the shape of the Union Jack, while military attachés mingled with senior officials over drinks and music. “But the standout,” recalls Pierce proudly, “was the Brazilian drag queen.”
That year, you see, Her Majesty’s birthday celebration coincided with the city hosting WorldPride, and the spicier than usual event was made “even more delicious” when a downpour forced partygoers – and performers – inside to the Sputnik Lounge, a Russian-sponsored part of the UN foyer. “And the Russians are not helpful, to put it mildly, on LGBTQ rights,” says Pierce with relish. “It was one of those great occasions where there’s a mini crisis and everyone mucks in, but it also sent a really serious message about diversity.”
It is an anecdote that typifies the flamboyant style that Pierce, at 61, has gained a reputation for over her 40-year career as a diplomat, both at the negotiating table and in what she wears to it. The feather boa and leather jacket she donned to accuse Russia of turning a blind eye to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, just days after she confronted Russia’s UN envoy over the Novichok attack in Salisbury, have become renowned – as has the way she referenced Sherlock Holmes to make her point in their barbed back-and-forth. But she wants to clear up one thing: it was a blazer, “Not a leather jacket,” she bristles. “I don’t own a leather jacket.”
Pierce doesn’t consider talk of clothes reductive – she famously wore stilettos during her posting to Afghanistan as “sometimes it could be really unpleasant and frightening,” but, she says, straightforwardly, “it’s a way of holding on to who you are”. Perhaps the bigger question is: why don’t we expect our diplomats to look like Pierce? After all, in the past three years she has occupied the two most prestigious jobs in British diplomacy, punching through the so-called glass ceiling not once, but twice: as the first woman in her role at the UN, and then again when she was named British Ambassador to the United States in February 2020.